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Warren Buffett's Net Worth by Age

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21–30 of 67 posts

Re: Warren Buffett's Net Worth by Age

#21
post #3

Wow, that's an average 26% per year increase (for the non-inflation-adjusted data) over a 70 year timespan. That's definitely not a random walk down wall street [1]. For reference, Dow Jones seems to have about 7% per year for the same time period. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Random_Walk_Down_Wall_Street

[deleted]

Re: Warren Buffett's Net Worth by Age

#22
To me the biggest anomaly here is the four year period from 1956 to 1960, 26 to 30, when Buffet octupled his net worth from $1M to $8M. Plenty of silicon valley engineers will have a net worth of $1M, but I think few make it to $8M. What was Buffet doing during those magical 4 years?

Re: Warren Buffett's Net Worth by Age

#23
post #3

Wow, that's an average 26% per year increase (for the non-inflation-adjusted data) over a 70 year timespan. That's definitely not a random walk down wall street [1]. For reference, Dow Jones seems to have about 7% per year for the same time period. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Random_Walk_Down_Wall_Street

Also note his net worth increased even during recession times ,of which there were twelve during his lifetime so far, except for the 1974-1975 recession.

Re: Warren Buffett's Net Worth by Age

#24
post #3

Wow, that's an average 26% per year increase (for the non-inflation-adjusted data) over a 70 year timespan. That's definitely not a random walk down wall street [1]. For reference, Dow Jones seems to have about 7% per year for the same time period. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Random_Walk_Down_Wall_Street

"We find that [Buffett's] alpha becomes insignificant when controlling for exposures to Betting-Against-Beta and Quality-Minus-Junk factors. Further, we estimate that Buffett’s leverage is about 1.6-to-1 on average. Buffett’s returns appear to be neither luck nor magic, but, rather, reward for the use of leverage combined with a focus on cheap, safe, quality stocks. Decomposing Berkshires’ portfolio into ownership in publicly traded stocks versus wholly-owned private companies, we find that the former performs the best, suggesting that Buffett’s returns are more due to stock selection than to his effect on management."

http://www.econ.yale.edu/~af227/pdf/Buffett's%20Alpha%20-%20...

Re: Warren Buffett's Net Worth by Age

#25
post #5

How do you accumulate $67k by age 14? I'm doing something wrong.

It's $67k after being adjusted for inflation. If you click through to the original article[1] linked by the blog post, they explain that > Warren Buffett became a player in the investment game at the wee age of 11, eventually using cash he earned from his paper route to buy some farmland in his home state. As a high school sophomore, he also reaped the rewards of a booming pinball machine business. 1. http://www.mark…

Yeah, I know it's adjusted for inflation. I guess they explain it? I can't imagine a paperboy earning nearly $60k (adjusted) in a couple years, so his investment returns must have been phenomenal right off the bat.

A high school sophomore would be 15-16, so he would have already made the $67k (adjusted) before he got into the pinball business.

Re: Warren Buffett's Net Worth by Age

#26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the link. Actually, I've been watching a finance class given by the infamous Martin Shkreli (I came across it in an other HN comment recently). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARrNYyJEnFI and I've been pondering this efficiency hypothesis. Basically, he explains how to pick stocks by fundamental analysis. Very entertaining to watch how this type of investors works. However, I can't help thinking that despi…

It's inevitable that the market will have some inefficiencies, the question is: how can you tell whether you found one? Mark Cuban claims he got rich because he found stock price anomalies in a business he was knowledgeable about, namely network equipment [1]. But he also warns that every stock trade has a sucker involved, and how do you know that you're not the sucker (i.e. the other party knows the stock is going t…

He might have made some money picking stocks, but he got rich by selling an overvalued company at the peak of the dotcom bubble. I suppose this is an example of a market inefficiency as well.

Re: Warren Buffett's Net Worth by Age

#27

To me the biggest anomaly here is the four year period from 1956 to 1960, 26 to 30, when Buffet octupled his net worth from $1M to $8M. Plenty of silicon valley engineers will have a net worth of $1M, but I think few make it to $8M. What was Buffet doing during those magical 4 years?

On the chart, the preceding few years have a very similar slope. One possible explanation is that he entered his 20s after all, and you might imagine that he started being taken more seriously in his business ventures when compared to the preceding period (i.e. it is possible the growth looks really huge when starting from a small base)

Re: Warren Buffett's Net Worth by Age

#28
Buffet's approach of combining high leverage with low growth 'value' equities is a large part of his great performance. This is not to say there isn't a skill in noticing the benefits of this approach and convincing creditors and investors to let you take on all the debt, but a surprisingly small proportion of these gains are due to stock picking.

http://xqdoc.imedao.com/150c22613c69373fe2602a80.pdf

Re: Warren Buffett's Net Worth by Age

#29
Buffett's net worth at 14 was $5k. I just checked my old childhood savings account, and after my 14th birthday it had around £50 in it.

At 34, his net worth was $7M, so relatively speaking, I only need £70k to be doing about as well as he was.

I think I'm actually doing better. :-)

Re: Warren Buffett's Net Worth by Age

#30
post #3

Wow, that's an average 26% per year increase (for the non-inflation-adjusted data) over a 70 year timespan. That's definitely not a random walk down wall street [1]. For reference, Dow Jones seems to have about 7% per year for the same time period. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Random_Walk_Down_Wall_Street

Thanks for the link. Actually, I've been watching a finance class given by the infamous Martin Shkreli (I came across it in an other HN comment recently). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARrNYyJEnFI and I've been pondering this efficiency hypothesis. Basically, he explains how to pick stocks by fundamental analysis. Very entertaining to watch how this type of investors works. However, I can't help thinking that despi…

> or those successful investors are just the lucky ones

Buffett directly answers this question

http://www8.gsb.columbia.edu/rtfiles/cbs/hermes/Buffett1984....

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